Real Name

Google owns most of the sites I interact with on the internet these days.  They own YouTube, Blogger, and Google+.   When Google+ was first starting up they asked required people to use their real names.  I signed up and didn't have a problem with it.  I'm on FaceBook and use my real name there so I don't see what the issue is.

This blog and my YouTube account still use other names and recently Google has been asking me if I would like to convert these profiles over to my real name and merge them all into one.  At this point I have declined the offer but I have been giving it more and more thought lately.  

What am I trying to hide?  When I started this blog in 2004 the internet was a different place and it has evolved a lot in the past nine years.  My FaceBook page is basically only links back to this blog but is not open to the public.  I don't link this blog on my Google+ page but a lot of the same photos get used in the same places.  A quick image search on Google would probably make quick work of linking my name to this blog.  Most everything I write on Google+ is posted publicly and can be seen by anyone.

Originally my only fear of using my real name was that I don't want co-workers finding my blog.  Using a false name helps slow them down.  Maybe.  

On Monday a co-worker stopped me and said he was on Google searching about weather and after a few links he said a picture of me was there.  I didn't ask any questions about how he got to me.  I didn't really want to know what he had found.  Maybe this blog.  Maybe some Google+ post that is public.  I just answered him with, "yep.  I've been on the internet before."   He was probably only one click from finding this blog anyway.

I think back on nine years of blog posts and I can't think of a reason I need to hide behind an alias any more.   In 2013 Google knows more about me than I do and they are willing to share most of it.  There is still something nice about hiding behind this curtain of DuckHunter but I think the curtains are getting a little thin and it might be time to take them down.